Objective 15: Provide access to basic services for migrants

The Open Society Foundations committed USD $133.7 million to combat devastation in the wake of coronavirus, prioritizing funding through public-private partnerships to support city governments in both response and recovery.5 A substantial portion of the funding was for urban immigrant and undocumented families, low-wage workers, domestic workers, caregivers, and those in the informal and gig economies who are at greatest risk from the pandemic, including direct, one-time emergency relief payments to up to 20,000 immigrant families in New York City.

Web platform that facilitates the search, communication and hiring process., for migrant integration and employment; digital matching of migrant workers to employers

Now Money offers digital payroll, account and remittance service for low-income workers, migrants and the unbanked.

Migrant workers make up 88% of the population of the UAE, yet many don’t meet the minimum salary requirements for a traditional bank account. Without access to banking services, workers are put at a distinct disadvantage as much more time, effort, cost and risk is involved in managing their money. Now Money is UAE’s first digital payroll and banking service for migrant workers – with no minimum salary requirement.

Since 2010, the municipality of Milan has run an innovative employment service, the Centre for Job Orientation and Placement (CELAV), which focuses on empowering residents, including migrants and asylum seekers, to be autonomous and overcome obstacles to labour market participation. Services include increasing beneficiaries’ employability through workshops, CV writing, job placement, facilitation, traineeships for skills development with supporting municipal grants to beneficiaries.

Mexico has developed a series of protocols and documents to guarantee the rights of people in mobility contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially related to the right to health.

These instruments are the following: 

‘Safer Migration’ (SaMI) project (Helvetas Nepal, funded by Switzerland) is a joint skill-upgrade initiative to ensure decent work in countries of destination. It provides skill training, including life skills and health, and certification for prospective migrant workers (9000 have benefitted from this programme between 2011 and 2018 of which 22% of women). Collaboration between CSOs, private institutions, the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) and Foreign employment board (FEB)

The STARTwien Das Jugend Youth College operates in two locations in Vienna by nine partner networks offers around 200 places to young asylum seekers within the age group of 15- 21. It is a fast-track skills training programme that is delivered within a span of nine months, around 20 hours per week of education and mentoring focusing on German and vocational subjects. The prospective candidates are selected and enrolled after their evaluation of language skills and basic competencies in mathematics, English and IT.

Canada’s Economic Mobility Pathways Project (EMPP) empowers regional partners and stakeholders, including local governments and the private sector, to help immigration address regional and local labour, economic and demographic challenges and create complementary pathways for the protection of refugees and durable solutions through labour mobility, family reunification, and education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the importance of making health services accessible to all and many Member States have decided to provide access to healthcare to all residents. Canada has updated pre-departure medical services for resettled refugees including testing and isolation and provided coverage for telemedical and virtual health services for beneficiaries of the Interim Federal Health Programme providing temporary health coverage for refugee claimants and other specific categories of migrants.

Ecuador has implemented social protection programmes, regularization and integration processes, as well as plans to attend the requests for refugee status to face the Venezuelan migration phenomenon. The “Comprehensive Plan for the Attention and Protection of the Venezuelan Population in Situation of Human Mobility 2020-2021” constitutes the roadmap for actions of national institutions and the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry in relation to Venezuelan migration.